149: Chapter 149 The Master Feels Some Pity for You

She stood still in front of Su Chen, so close that he could smell the unique, cold fragrance of plum blossoms emanating from her.

It was just like that brief encounter they once had under the peach tree in the dreamscape.

No different at all.

Su Chen's breath hitched, and his heart began to throb uncontrollably.

This face—he had looked at it through the ancient mirror for countless days and nights, and had traced it a thousand times in his dreams. Now that it was within reach, it felt so surreal.

He could see her long eyelashes, like butterfly wings; her fair, flawless skin; and that sliver of suppressed, overflowing complex emotion deep within her cold gaze.

He suddenly felt a pang of distress for her.

He wanted to speak.

It has been so many years.

Xiao Yu.

You've suffered.

Teacher... feels a bit distressed for you.

Before he could open his mouth, Zhuge Jinyu raised a slender, jade-like hand.

That hand was like carved jade, with translucent fingertips, so perfect it didn't seem mortal.

Amidst countless gazes of admiration, jealousy, or disbelief.

This hand gently pressed against Su Chen's forehead.

“Teacher.”

“I believe it is you.”

The moment Zhuge Jinyu's jade fingers brushed across Su Chen's forehead.

Su Chen felt a cool, moist, yet majestic and vast power surge into his sea of consciousness.

Facing Zhuge Jinyu, he naturally had no defenses.

Immediately after, everything around him rapidly blurred, faded, and dissolved.

Darkness fell, only to be instantly dispelled by a soft light.

Su Chen found himself standing on a familiar yet strange land.

It was no longer the central square of Jinguan City.

Instead, it was...

The great hall of the Zhuge Family in Great Qian.

Zhuge Yuan and Murong Yue sat on the main seats, while Zhuge Jinyu knelt quietly below them.

The surrounding area was packed with zhuge clansmen who had come to watch the spectacle.

“This is...”

For a moment, Su Chen felt as if a lifetime had passed.

“The Zhuge Family's great hall.”

“Teacher, as expected, you know everything and have forgotten nothing.”

Su Chen turned his head sharply and saw that Zhuge Jinyu was standing beside him at some point.

She was still in her plain white dress, her beauty peerless.

Only...

Those phoenix eyes, always known for their calm composure.

At this moment, they were swirling with emotions that even she didn't know where they originated from.

The scene shifted.

Still at the Zhuge Family, but in a remote courtyard.

Zhuge Jinyu was surrounded by many 'people.'

Several well-dressed teenagers with mocking faces were surrounding the white-haired girl, spitting out poisonous words.

“...Jinx!”

“Cursed star who killed her own brother!”

“You're worthy of the zhuge name?”

“Get out of the Zhuge Family!”

Stones and rotten vegetable leaves were constantly thrown at the girl.

She held her head and squatted on the ground, her thin shoulders trembling slightly.

She seemed to be crying.

But Su Chen knew.

She had actually never made a sound while crying.

Even though it wasn't the first time seeing this scene, his heart still felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand.

He wanted to rush over, but found he was only a phantom, unable to interfere.

While he was burning with anxiety.

The mirror in the girl's arms emitted the voice he had made back then.

“Don't be afraid, Xiao Yu.”

“Lift your head.”

“Remember, only when you are strong enough to become the one who makes the rules can your fate not be defined by them.”

The girl's whole body shook. She lifted her head in disbelief, looking at the empty space ahead, and her tears finally burst forth.

“Teacher, Xiao Yu understands...”

She murmured with a sob.

Su Chen knew that the voice in the mirror came from him.

It came from that 'investor' who reached out to the girl in her desperate situation across time and space.

He suddenly felt something soft wrap around his arm behind him.

The Young Prime Minister lowered her eyes; several strands of her white hair had fallen onto Su Chen's sleeve.

Her phantom trembled slightly.

She reached out, seemingly wanting to touch her past self who was both desperate and beginning to see hope, but her fingertips passed through the light and shadow.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again, her gaze was fixed tightly on Su Chen's face.

“Teacher.”

The scene shifted rapidly.

The Zhuge Family's great hall, the Three Moves Agreement.

Facing the Wang Family's forced marriage, the young Zhuge Jinyu stood alone in the center, her figure thin but her spine straight.

She spoke of exquisite strategies, her eyes flashing with a wisdom and sharpness that didn't belong to her age, leading her opponents into traps step by step.

Ultimately, she won completely with the 'Three Arts,' earning a dead silence from the hall and winning the turning point of her own fate.

In the images, in a corner no one saw, that ancient mirror had been lying quietly in her sleeve.

The mirror's surface shimmered with a faint light, as if approving of something.

“If Teacher hadn't secretly taught me the Three Strategies of Governance and the Art of Vertical and Horizontal, and if Teacher hadn't deduced the Wang Family's intentions and predicted their reactions, Jinyu would have long been treated as a discarded pawn, married into the Wang Family to waste her life away.”

Zhuge Jinyu's voice rang out softly beside Su Chen.

The scene changed again.

White Emperor City, blood and fire soaring to the sky.

The Old Emperor passed away, the Crown Prince was young, and the empire was on the verge of collapse.

The Young Prime Minister, who had already begun to show her brilliance, was appointed to suppress the rebellion in the face of danger, dressed in white mourning clothes, standing atop the city wall.

Facing hundreds of thousands of covetous enemy troops, she had no soldiers or generals in hand, only a scroll of the late emperor's final edict and a cold ancient mirror in her sleeve.

In the imperial court, the Surrenderists, conspirators, and the ambitious rose up to attack her.

The isolated and helpless girl sat alone facing the mirror late at night, exhaustion and confusion almost swallowing her whole.

In the mirror, that gentle voice rang out once more.

Unhurriedly.

Analyzing the situation for her, pointing the way, and strengthening her conviction.

“His Majesty did not entrust the state to Zhuge Jinyu alone; he entrusted the fate of Great Qian to your shoulders.”

“If you fall, who can support Great Qian? Where can the people turn? Who can the Prince rely on?”

“If there are powerful enemies without and vermin within, then uproot them all together.”

“No soldiers? I will teach you how to create something from nothing.”

“No generals? I will be your hidden dragon in the depths.”

“Remember, you are not alone.”

“Always, I will always be by your side.”

The voice in the mirror was calm and powerful, dispelling the haze in the girl's heart.

She wiped away her tears, her gaze becoming as sharp as a sword once again.

From then on, the court had a young Female Prime Minister who was swift and decisive, whose plans never failed. She implemented the imperial examinations, reorganized the military, and pacified the four directions.

She gave Su Chen a slightly reproachful look.

“Teacher, in the end, you still broke your promise...”

Behind every key decision, at every moment of turning danger into safety.

Throughout her growth, the figure of the 'person in the mirror' was never missing.

That was the 'Teacher' from another world, selflessly burning his 'investment energy.'

Paving the way for her, escorting her.

Su Chen watched in silence.

Some fragments of these memories were clear, some were blurred.

But that determination and sacrifice of giving everything just to protect her growth all the way was transmitted through the images with undeniable reality.

He felt as if he were once again behind that ancient mirror, feeling the weakness and fatigue brought to his spirit as the energy was consumed bit by bit.

Even more, he felt the gratification brought by her every step of growth.

The scene suddenly became intense.

Wuzhang Plains.

(Recognition + two extra chapters as a reward from the boss, nearly ten thousand words updated, I'm burnt out!)

(With such a brilliant plot, it's not too much to ask for some snacks, right? QWQ.)

(PS: Continuing to promote the author's group, group location: Room 0313, 9th Floor, Unit 6, 1017 Penguin Avenue, don't get it wrong!!)